Anthony Fokker

Anthony Fokker PDF Author: Marc Dierikx
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588346161
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Comprehensive biography of Anthony Fokker, the famed Dutch pilot and daredevil aviator Anthony Fokker: The Flying Dutchman Who Shaped American Aviation tells the larger-than-life true story of maverick pilot and aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker. Fokker came from an affluent Dutch family and developed a gift for tinkering with mechanics. Despite not receiving a traditional education, he stumbled his way into aviation as a young stunt pilot in Germany in 1910. He survived a series of spectacular airplane crashes and rose to fame within a few years. A combination of industrial espionage, luck, and deception then propelled him to become Germany's leading aircraft manufacturer during World War I, making him a multimillionaire by his midtwenties. When the German Revolution swept the country in 1918 and 1919, Fokker made a spectacular escape to the United States. He set up business in New York and New Jersey in 1921, and shortly thereafter became the world's largest aircraft manufacturer. The U.S. Army and Navy acquired his machines, and his factories equipped legendary carriers such as Pan American and TWA at the dawn of commercial air transport. Yet despite his astounding success, his empire collapsed in the late 1920s after a series of ill-conceived business decisions and deeply upsetting personal dramas. In 1927, aviator Richard Byrd solicited a Fokker three-engine plane to be the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. The plane was damaged on a test flight and Charles Lindbergh beat him to it. Lindbergh's solo adventure in the Spirit of St. Louis earned him--and cost Fokker--a lasting place in the history books. Using previously undiscovered records and primary sources, Marc Dierikx traces Fokker's extraordinary life and celebrates his spectacular achievements.

Anthony Fokker

Anthony Fokker PDF Author: Marc Dierikx
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588346161
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Get Book Here

Book Description
Comprehensive biography of Anthony Fokker, the famed Dutch pilot and daredevil aviator Anthony Fokker: The Flying Dutchman Who Shaped American Aviation tells the larger-than-life true story of maverick pilot and aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker. Fokker came from an affluent Dutch family and developed a gift for tinkering with mechanics. Despite not receiving a traditional education, he stumbled his way into aviation as a young stunt pilot in Germany in 1910. He survived a series of spectacular airplane crashes and rose to fame within a few years. A combination of industrial espionage, luck, and deception then propelled him to become Germany's leading aircraft manufacturer during World War I, making him a multimillionaire by his midtwenties. When the German Revolution swept the country in 1918 and 1919, Fokker made a spectacular escape to the United States. He set up business in New York and New Jersey in 1921, and shortly thereafter became the world's largest aircraft manufacturer. The U.S. Army and Navy acquired his machines, and his factories equipped legendary carriers such as Pan American and TWA at the dawn of commercial air transport. Yet despite his astounding success, his empire collapsed in the late 1920s after a series of ill-conceived business decisions and deeply upsetting personal dramas. In 1927, aviator Richard Byrd solicited a Fokker three-engine plane to be the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. The plane was damaged on a test flight and Charles Lindbergh beat him to it. Lindbergh's solo adventure in the Spirit of St. Louis earned him--and cost Fokker--a lasting place in the history books. Using previously undiscovered records and primary sources, Marc Dierikx traces Fokker's extraordinary life and celebrates his spectacular achievements.

Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman PDF Author: Anthony H. G. Fokker
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN:
Category : Air pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description


Sky As Frontier

Sky As Frontier PDF Author: David T. Courtwright
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585444199
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
A look at how aviation's frontier lasted only a scant 3 decades, then vanished as commercial and military imperatives made flying routine.

Tex Johnston

Tex Johnston PDF Author: A. M. "Tex" Johnston
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588344479
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
One of America's most daring and accomplished test pilots, Tex Johnston flew the first US jet airplanes and, in a career spanning the 1930s through the 1970s, helped create the jet age at such pioneering aersospace companies as Bell Aircraft and Boeing.

Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman PDF Author: Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description


FOKKER

FOKKER PDF Author: M. L. J. Dierikx
Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
"The name Fokker is synonymous with early aviation warfare. Rising to prominence as a builder of biplanes and triplanes used extensively by Germany in World War I, Anthony Fokker (1890-1939) made aerial combat possible by inventing a device to synchronize machine gun fire with propellers. By 1918 he was the manufacturer of Germany's top fighter planes. A decade later, with his business interests extending from Germany and his native Holland to the United States, he headed the world's largest aircraft manufacturing conglomerate, renowned for an innovative trimotor plane." "Arguing that Fokker's early success was due as much to good timing and marketing strategies as to engineering genius, Marc Dierikx draws from archives in Europe and the United States to trace Fokker's mixed career as an aviation businessman. He shows how Fokker's reluctance to invest in research and development, his propensity for producing small-series, highly customized aircraft, and his struggle with quality control led to the eventual decline of his empire. The book describes how Fokker's eccentricities and constant travels had dramatic consequences on his personal life and how his financial strategies affected the sales of his planes. Dierikx also details Fokker's unfounded confidence in the giant F-32."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Fighter Pilot

Fighter Pilot PDF Author: Philip Kaplan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781854106148
Category : Biography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Fighter Pilot presents a record and celebration of fighter pilots of many nations. It examines the reality behind the myths, the skills that a successful pilot must have and the way in which tactics have developed.'

The Story of American Aviation

The Story of American Aviation PDF Author: Jim Ray
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
This book traces the history of aviation in America, from its early days to post-World War II. The book covers a range of topics, including the first transatlantic flight, the birth of precision bombing, the development of the first aircraft carrier, and the growth of commercial air travel. It also provides a detailed account of key events and innovations in American aviation and the impact of aviation on modern society.

Black Wings

Black Wings PDF Author: William J. Powell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description


Queen Bess

Queen Bess PDF Author: Doris L. Rich
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588345122
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
Here is the brief but intense life of Bessie Coleman, America's first African American woman aviator. Born in 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, she became known as “Queen Bess,” a barnstormer and flying-circus performer who defied the strictures of race, sex, and society in pursuit of a dream.